Moisture down significantly in 2020; close to record low

    It’s not big news to ag producers in this area that moisture levels in 2020 were down considerably.
    That was confirmed as monthly rainfall and moisture figures from snow were tallied, resulting in the lowest moisture levels since 2002.
    While some areas of Chase County may have recorded a little more or a little less during the year, moisture readings in Imperial for 2020 totaled 11.22 inches.
    That’s well below the 2019 total that topped 20 inches in Imperial and more than 8 inches lower than the 125-year average of 19.79 inches.
    The all-time lowest year for moisture came in 2002, when just 9.38 inches was recorded.
    Irrigation use for the 2020 crop year in the Upper Republican NRD district certainly indicates a much drier year, too.
    During 2020, an additional 172,589 acre-feet of water was used than the year before by NRD irrigators, or 50% more than 2019.
    URNRD use figures that show irrigators pumped 516,982 acre-feet of water in 2020 compared to 344,393 in 2019.
    Only four months last year recorded moisture totals of more than an inch, and one of those was barely in that category.
    July 2020 proved to be the year’s wettest month with 3.75 inches of rain.
    November recorded the least moisture at .12 of an inch, coming from two inches of snow. January was close with .13 of an inch, also from two inches of snow.
    May and June were the second and third wettest months with 2.14 and 1.62 inches, respectively.
    There wasn’t a lot of snow shoveling required in 2020 either. Imperial received just over 17 inches of snow last year (17.1”), way below the 2019 total of 29.3 inches. In 2018, 48 inches of snow fell.

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